"Touch and Feel" and #Spiritprobs

Selfie at the Ranch!

This week was pretty low key. We had a lesson with our investigator

Hannah that went pretty bad. Her mom was there and she was pretty

anti about the Book of Mormon and wanted us to show her proof in the

bible. We could, but it would have been pointless. We read the

introduction of the Book of Mormon with her and told her she needs to

exercise faith and pray to know if it's true. She still wasn't

convinced but... One day she'll understand! Hannah was super quiet the

whole time and the spirit wasn't there. Hannah still shows a lot of

potential she's just confused. She did read the first four chapters of

the Book of Mormon and she took notes and had legit questions for us!

We were supposed to meet with her on Saturday, but she canceled...that

made me worried, I hope she'll continue to meet with us. Man it's

crazy how much love you feel for these complete strangers.

We had exchanges on Thursday and I stayed in Cranberry with sister

Beusath! She's awesome and it was actually a really good

exchange! She is super sweet and it really good at teaching

The Ranch

right when when she finds people. We were tracting all that day, and

then went and contacted a potential and invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. We are going to see them again on Wednesday, which I'm pretty excited for!

The ranch was pretty fun this week. It was just Beutler and I—no elders. They had us drop hay which took like two hours. Beutler is tiny so I did most of the lifting lol!!! Then, they replaced the roof, so we stacked all of the old roofing in the rain. Haha Good times Good times!

Saturday night we had the ward trunk or treat and that was super fun!

The missionaries were in charge of the “touch and feel” table so we

came up with all of these nasty things like maggots and eyeballs which were

Fall time in PA.

rice and grapes. Haha little kids thought it was super cool! Then we cut a hole in the back of a box and put Elder Rackham under the table and put his hand in the hole and he was freaking everyone out!  Hahahahah! So funny😂 We invited so many people to that party and none of them came. But I didn't want it to ruin our fun time so I had to get over myself really quick! But the Standlee's

(a less-active family) came which was super great!

Sunday was really great! It was the primary program and they were so cute! Haha it's funny, I was looking at all the people at church and thinking about how cool it was that I got to get to know most all of the people in this amazing ward. They've become my lil fam away from home! I'm really going to miss them when I leave this area. One of the young women brought her friend to church and she plays lax too, so it was fun to talk to her! Man I miss playing sooooo bad! I wish I just had a stick here! But she was super sweet and she really liked the primary program and started tearing up. #spiritprobs haha!! So cool though! We'll see😀

Love love love

Sister Douglas

Comps and Coats. We found these sweet coats at Plato's closet! Haha so fun! And
they totally match our personality!

Tracting Life

Ran into this guy yesterday while tracting. Seems to be interested in
the gospel!

What a week!!! This has been one of the best/busiest/hardest weeks of my mission. It's been really great getting to know Sis. Beutler and here are some things that I think make her awesome. #1 She is an incredible teacher. #2 She likes Enya and Enya = bae (Mom’s note:Sis Douglas loves Enya and has since she was so little. Good to know there’s another fan out there.). #3 She is the nicest person on the planet. #4 She's a really hard worker and #5 she's a triplet (I think I forgot to mention that last week). Both of her other sisters are serving missions as well! Anyway I just love her.

While tracting this week we found a new investigator. She is 19 and her name is Hannah!!!!! I love that girl.  Seriously, I feel like I already knew her and that we were long lost friends. Talking to her about the gospel felt so natural and I felt completely like myself. We are going to go see her tomorrow again and I hope and pray she read from the Book of Mormon and prayed for an answer! Wouldn't it be so amazing if she did:)

We had to stop teaching Jerry this week because he wasn't keeping commitments and wouldn't pray on his own to know if the Book of Mormon was true. He also told us he just wanted to be Catholic. It makes me sad to let him go, but we did our part. We shared our message and invited him to come to Christ. Now it's up to him!

We also ran into this AMAZING family when we were out tracting. They are super Catholic, but they have known the missionaries for a long time. The mom invited us in and offered us dinner, which was crazy, because that NEVER happens. We talked and talked and found out they had had a long going relationship with elders for years, but when the sisters came into the area it kind of fell away. So they were so happy to have us there. They pulled out their two copies of the Book of Mormon and said they had read parts of it and enjoyed it, but weren't really interested. We shared a Mormon Message with them, Because of Him. When it was over, the Spirit was so strong in their home and there wasn't a dry eye. I bore my testimony of the Savior and told them I know He lives and loves each of us and had blessed me that night by meeting their sweet family. Their daughter is 15 and her name is Johanna and reminds me SO much of Alli it's cray cray. She plays the piano and guitar and sings...it weirded me out and it made miss her a whole lot.  

It’s almost been four months that I’ve been out…can you believe that? Honestly though, it's all flying by soooo fast.

I love you all. I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sis Douglas

Down in Freedom tracting after a lesson with Jerry.
Behind the trains is the Ohio river. It's a really cute city.

Autumn! So pretty right now!

The District with President and Sister Johnson.

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The Leaves Aren't the Only Thing Changing

Leaf lips!!

(Raquel had other things that had to be done today instead of write for the blog this week so I decided to add some pictures and call it good.  Mom/Annie)

A tiny excerpt from this week's letter:
My new companion's name is Sister Beutler and she is from Phoenix, AZ.  I know that the Lord has made us companions for a reason and I've already grown to love her very very much. She served her first eight months in Beaver, which is in my zone, so we had actually met before. She is really really nice... all the time! She's a great missionary and has been so patient with me as I've tried to lead out the area this week.

The New Cran Crew

This was on our way to the ranch this Saturday. What a beautiful
place. I love the changing leaves and the autumn season!

Heinz Field- Steelers

Conference --Basically Christmas

Had so much fun today in Pittsburgh city! Went to the
point and the
strip district (farmers market) so great!

(excerpts from this weeks emails)

Saturday morning before conference we got

transfer calls and sister Hokafonu is being transferred. Oh man I'm

going to miss her, but I know she needs to go bless other lives. I

won't be training so it will be cool to have someone experienced in

missionary work come in and help improve this area. 

I LOVED LOVED LOVED conference. It was such a treat! As a missionary

conference is basically Christmas! Hearing the prophet brought tears

to my eyes and deep prayers for the Lord to give him strength to

finish his talk. I love that man, I know he is the mouthpiece for

the church. Why would someone struggle so much to even physically stand

there if he didn't know what he was saying was important and true.

One night  this week we went to the Young's and made really good sushi! Haha

Pittsburg City!! Last P-day as comps.

this is the second time in my mission that I've been able to make my own

sushi and it was a blast! Sister Young is the sweetest and made all of

these Korean dishes to go along with our sushi! It was basically a five star meal! Oh boy... I'm so spoiled in this area #blessed # fgp. We were there later than normal and I was starting to feel antsy antsy about being there for that long. I was honestly kinda frustrated, but I learned that night that the Lord does really work in his own timing

and puts us places for a reason. On the way home, as we pulled into the apartment parking lot, we saw a man and his wife trying to back a Uhaul

into the parking lot. The elders were with us and Elder Redford, our Zone Leader, said we should go help them.

We went over and asked if we could help! You could immediately tell this man was from the south. He said yes as he was chowing down on

some fried chicken haha! It took forever but we finally got his truck into the parking lot and started unloading it so we could get their

bed out for the night.

We met his cute little wife and two little girls who are two and one.

They are just moving here from Georgia after living there for eight

years and are both originally from Ghana! He was very grateful and we said we would be back the next morning to unload the rest.

The next morning we went over with the elders and unloaded the whole

truck into their apartment on the third floor... I was so sore after! Probably the best work out ever! While we helped them move we met their neighbor, who just so happens to also be from Ghana! She is the

sweetest lady and has a six year old and two year old. We talked to both her and Fauzie (the man we helped move in) about the church and it was great! Fauzie wanted to pay us for our help but we told him we would like to teach them a lesson about Jesus Christ instead. He gratefully

said yes, so we are planning on going back this week! Jenoviva, the neighbor, also seemed interested and said we could stop by any time to

Fun sushi dinner at the Young's house. And yes I did make
 that amazing sushi with caviar on it!
Haha 

I'll have to make it for you when I get
back! Super fun and actually pretty easy!

teach her. They both know about our church and even knew there was a temple in Ghana!

It's moments like these that make the mission so worth it! I can't wait to see where these great people's lives go! I sure hope and pray

that they are ready for the gospel to change their lives for the better! I know Heavenly Father put them in our path late that night for a reason!

I hope you have a fabulous week :)

Love Sis Douglas

Lil taste of PA. So cute! It looks like this in the outer parts of our area and I love it!

Trying to get Raquel ready for a cold Pennsylvania winter. She's modeling the coat I sent last week. I had to add this pic because she just looks so cute!!
Mom/Annie